Although prickly, thorny, and spiny like their cousins, the thistles of the genus Cirsium differ in having fruit equipped for airborne dispersion, with a pappus consisting of feathery hairs.

It contains a number of toxic substances – chiefly the alkaloids hyoscyamine, scopolamine and atropine – which stimulate the nervous system, in particular the brain. The plant is characterized by its smell and is avoided by farm animals; thus Henbane poisoning in livestock is fairly rare.

The Snowdrop grows in flood-plains and broad-leaved forests, as well as thickets, from lowland to mountain elevations. It also grows wild, as an escapee, in the vicinity of parks and gardens. It is rarely found in the wild in the more northerly parts of Europe.

Henbane, a robust plant up to 80 cm high, is an annual or more often biennial herb, forming only a ground rosette of leaves the first year. The ornamental flowers (1) grow from the axils of the upper stem leaves. The fruit of Henbane is a capsule enclosed in a calyx with joined sepals and with a lid that bursts open when ripe. Inside are thousands of tiny seeds which are hard to distinguish from poppy seeds with the naked eye. Only on magnification do Henbane seeds show up as brownish, kidney-shaped, and pitted. They are light and fall out readily in a breeze.

Creeping Thistle is a perennial herb 30-150 cm high and branching at the top. The leaves form a ground rosette from which grows a tall stem.

It dislikes cold (which is probably why it does not flowers until late summer) and is rarely seen in the foothills. Henbane is distributed in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia.